IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ieaple/v14y2014i1p47-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The environment as a strategic priority in the European Union–Brazil partnership: is the EU behaving as a normative power or soft imperialist?

Author

Listed:
  • Stavros Afionis
  • Lindsay Stringer

Abstract

In 2007, Brazil entered the European Union’s (EU) list of strategic partners; a token of recognition of the place Brazil occupies in current global affairs. Although promoting bilateral environmental convergence is a stated priority, cooperation between the EU and Brazil in this policy field is largely under-researched, raising interesting questions as to whether the current state of play could support EU claims for the normative orientation of its external environmental policy. Through an analysis of partnership activities in the fields of deforestation and biofuels, we suggest that while normative intentions may be regarded as a motivating force, critically viewing EU foreign environmental policy through a ‘soft imperialism’ lens could offer a more holistic understanding of the current state of bilateral cooperation. While the normative power thesis can be substantiated with regard to deforestation, we argue that by erecting barriers to shield its domestic biofuels production, the EU is placing trade competitiveness and economic growth above its normative aspirations. Subsequently, the partial adoption of sustainable development as an EU norm leads to policy incoherence and contradictory actions. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Stavros Afionis & Lindsay Stringer, 2014. "The environment as a strategic priority in the European Union–Brazil partnership: is the EU behaving as a normative power or soft imperialist?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 47-64, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:47-64
    DOI: 10.1007/s10784-013-9232-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10784-013-9232-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10784-013-9232-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Chilosi, 2007. "The European Union and its Neighbours: Everything but Institutions?," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 4(1), pages 25-38, June.
    2. Emily Boyd & Esteve Corbera & Manuel Estrada, 2008. "UNFCCC negotiations (pre-Kyoto to COP-9): what the process says about the politics of CDM-sinks," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 95-112, June.
    3. Axel Michaelowa, 1998. "Climate policy and interest Groups—A Public choice analysis," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 33(6), pages 251-259, November.
    4. de Souza, Raquel R. & Schaeffer, Roberto & Meira, Irineu, 2011. "Can new legislation in importing countries represent new barriers to the development of an international ethanol market?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3154-3162, June.
    5. Constantin Holzer & Haibin Zhang, 2008. "The potentials and limits of China–EU cooperation on climate change and energy security," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 217-227, June.
    6. Kristen Hopewell, 2013. "New Protagonists in Global Economic Governance: Brazilian Agribusiness at the WTO," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 603-623, August.
    7. Radoslav S. Dimitrov, 2010. "Inside UN Climate Change Negotiations: The Copenhagen Conference," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(6), pages 795-821, November.
    8. Ian Manners, 2002. "Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 235-258, June.
    9. Goldemberg, José & Guardabassi, Patricia, 2009. "Are biofuels a feasible option?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 10-14, January.
    10. David Scott, 2009. "Environmental issues as a ‘strategic’ key in EU–China relations," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 211-224, June.
    11. John Vogler & Hannes Stephan, 2007. "The European Union in global environmental governance: Leadership in the making?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 389-413, December.
    12. Stavros Afionis, 2011. "The European Union as a negotiator in the international climate change regime," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 341-360, November.
    13. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:45:y:2007:i::p:281-314 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stavros Afionis & Lindsay C. Stringer & Nicola Favretto & Julia Tomei & Marcos S. Buckeridge, 2016. "Unpacking Brazil’s Leadership in the Global Biofuels Arena: Brazilian Ethanol Diplomacy in Africa," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 16(3), pages 127-150, August.
    2. Matilda Petersson & Peter Stoett, 2022. "Lessons learnt in global biodiversity governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 333-352, June.
    3. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.
    2. Armin Ibitz, 2015. "Towards a global scheme for carbon emissions reduction in aviation: China’s role in blocking the extension of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 113-130, June.
    3. Maria Garcia & Annick Masselot, 2015. "EU-Asia Free Trade Agreements as tools for social norm/legislation transfer," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 241-252, September.
    4. Stefan Renckens & Grace Skogstad & Matthieu Mondou, 2017. "When Normative and Market Power Interact: The European Union and Global Biofuels Governance," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(6), pages 1432-1448, November.
    5. Peter Viggo Jakobsen, 2009. "Small States, Big Influence: The Overlooked Nordic Influence on the Civilian ESDP," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 81-102, January.
    6. Luuk Middelaar, 2016. "The Return of Politics – The European Union after the crises in the eurozone and Ukraine," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 495-507, May.
    7. Loredana SIMIONOV, 2021. "European Union's pursuit of resilience in the Eastern Neighbourhood," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 12(4), pages 257-266, February.
    8. May-Britt Stumbaum, 2015. "The diffusion of norms in security-related fields: views from China, India and the EU," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 331-347, September.
    9. Tanja A. Börzel & Thomas Risse, 2009. "Diffusing (Inter-) Regionalism - The EU as a Model of Regional Integration," KFG Working Papers p0007, Free University Berlin.
    10. Carattini, Stefano & Fankhauser, Sam & Gao, Jianjian & Gennaioli, Caterina & Panzarasa, Pietro, 2023. "What does network analysis teach us about international environmental cooperation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    11. Adler, Emanuel & Crawford, Beverly, 2004. "Normative Power: The European Practice of Region Building and the Case of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP)," Institute of European Studies, Working Paper Series qt6xx6n5p4, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley.
    12. Anand Menon, 2014. "The JCMS Annual Review Lecture Divided and Declining? Europe in a Changing World," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52, pages 5-24, November.
    13. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s4:p:85-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Anna Michalski, 2013. "Europeanization of National Foreign Policy: The Case of Denmark's and Sweden's Relations with China," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 884-900, September.
    15. Rosendal, G. Kristin & Andresen, Steinar, 2011. "Institutional design for improved forest governance through REDD: Lessons from the global environment facility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1908-1915, September.
    16. Eloi Laurent & Jacques Le Cacheux, 2010. "The EU as a global ecological power: The logics of marketintegration," Working Papers hal-01880678, HAL.
    17. Μichalena, Evanthie & Hills, Jeremy M., 2012. "Renewable energy issues and implementation of European energy policy: The missing generation?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 201-216.
    18. Kamil Zwolski, 2014. "How to Explain the Transnational Security Governance of the European Union?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 942-958, July.
    19. David Budde & Mathias Großklaus, 2011. "Patterns of Power. The EU‘s External Steering Techniques at Work - The Case of Democratization Policies in Morocco," KFG Working Papers p0022, Free University Berlin.
    20. Mehdi Abbas & Catherine Locatelli, 2019. "Interdependence as a lever for national hybridization: The EU-Russia gas trade [L’hybridation des systèmes institutionnels nationaux dans l’interdépendance. Les échanges gaziers UE-Russie]," Post-Print hal-02472141, HAL.
    21. Vivien Schmidt, 2010. "Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited - Input, Output and Throughput," KFG Working Papers p0021, Free University Berlin.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:47-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.